Friday, June 09, 2006
an LGF comment I made
The real dilemma that leftists face today is that they intensely disagree with the direction of our government yet that government was elected by the US citizens. They are faced with three facts which can't all be true:
1) The people of the US are not evil.
2) The government represents the people of the US.
3) The government is doing evil.
For them, #3 is a given and they cling to it fiercely. This means they must choose between denying #1 or #2. After the 2004 elections and after no meaningful Vietnam-like breakdown of the willingness of people to remain in Iraq, #2 is getting more and more difficult to deny, so people are shifting towards denying #1. And this is the path of a left-wing jihad that will leave a core group of extremists to be more and more strongly allied with the Islamists, despite their enormous differences.
The behavior of the leftists in the US are typical of anyone who loses influence. For them, it's like driving a car and finding the brakes don't work, the steering wheel doesn't steer. So they frantically apply more and more force to the things which had worked in the past. The average person doesn't expect to control society. They provide their opinions, make their arguments, and then listen to the other opinions and arguments. But those who were in power still expect their steering wheel to control the country.
Aside from his foreign policy, Clinton had already adopted much of the conservative ways of viewing things. He understood basic economics. He was very good at straddling positions. I recall how impressed I was with his response to an arrogant question about abortion: Clinton basically said that reasonable, educated people disagree on basic assumptions regarding when life begins. Blammo, he grabbed the center.
At the time, leftists didn't know it, but their steering wheel and brakes were already largely non-functional. They were simply lulled into believing that they still had power and influence. George W. Bush didn't have that facade and it frightened leftists once again as Reagan did. They viewed the Reagan years as a temporary detour when it was a permanent turn that Clinton accepted, but was able to hide very well.
But let me be clear that I've never considered GW Bush to be a great president. He has serious flaws in communicating with the people. His father had the same problem. Today is a time when that is a very important skill for our president to have.
I believe the leftists of today will never change. They'll continue believing that they belong in charge, that their ideas are correct while the world leaves them behind. They'll be like some aging, ousted dictator still trying to live in the past. And they will only get crazier and crazier.
